The Bet
by WeasleySeeker
Summary: When Roxie bets Rose that she can't stay away from Scorpius Malfoy for the rest of the school year, Rose thinks she'll be making easy money; all she feels around him is irrational anger. But it turns out that there's more to Scorpius than meets the eye. —for Jasmine.


**A/N: This is for the lovely Jasmine as part of the Gift-Giving Extravaganza. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Also for Camp Potter (Archery) with the following prompts: "write about a bet" - ****"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it." - "How am I supposed to know?" - not quite fearless**

* * *

Not for the first time, the heat had got to the sixth year Potions class - they sat at their desks drowsily, leaving the debate to two willing participants.

"That's rubbish! There is absolutely no proof of that!" Rose Weasley said heatedly as the rest of the class rolled their eyes at her.

Infuriatingly calm as usual, Scorpius Malfoy continued with his point. "Of course there is! We use Salamander blood in the Strengthening Solution, do we not? It has clear healing and rejuvenating properties."

"Yes, but how do we know they're the right healing and rejuvenating properties to cure spattergroit? It's just wishful thinking. Everybody knows there's no real cure for it. You either recover from it, or you don't."

"You're ignoring the evidence that's right in front of you!" Scorpius was shaking his head incredulously, gesturing towards the newspaper article that the class had been given to examine. "This man had spattergroit. He was given Salamander blood, and his symptoms were gone within two days. Quicker than ever before."

"Coincidence," Rose insisted. "Besides, even if this man _was_ cured, how do we know it was the Salamander blood that did it? The Healers were obviously trying everything they could. Salamander blood is probably just the only thing the press knew they were using. There's no way anyone can know."

"You're clearly not listening to me. I just told you that the properties of Salamander blood plainly show us that - "

"That's quite enough of that," Professor Calderwood said wearily, speaking for the first time in several minutes as the bell signalling lunch echoed through the school.

Rose smirked, convinced that she had done a far better job of arguing her point than her opponent.

Calderwood sighed as she turned to Scorpius. "Miss Weasley is right that as of now, nowhere near enough research into Salamander blood has been done for it to be considered a 'miracle cure.' However," she continued, giving Rose a patronising smile, "Miss Weasley could do with having more of an open mind from time to time."

The pitying look that Scorpius flashed across the classroom at her made Rose want to strangle someone.

Shoving the books into her bag at lightning speed, Rose barely even bothered to wait for Liberty, the only one of her friends who had continued Potions to NEWT level; she just wanted to get as far away from Scorpius as possible.

Liberty caught up, and although she said nothing, she had a knowing smile on her face.

Rose couldn't bear it any longer. _"What?"_

"Oh, nothing," Liberty said innocently, but the smirk remained and Rose knew exactly what she was thinking. They had been through this many times before.

"I do _not_ have a crush on Scorpius Malfoy."

"Sure you don't."

Unfortunately, Scorpius and his little group of Slytherin friends chose that moment to walk past. While Rose had no way of knowing if they'd heard the rest of the conversation, it was pretty likely.

"_Merlin_, kill me now," Rose muttered, her ears turning bright red in her embarrassment, in true Weasley fashion.

"Nah, I'd rather not. This is quite entertaining," Liberty admitted; Rose shoved her angrily before they took their usual places at the Gryffindor table for lunch.

As she piled food onto her plate, Rose could tell that her friends were already looking at her as if she was a bomb that was about to go off. She decided to stay as calm as she could, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of seeing her explode.

"So, how was Potions?" Danny asked, catching Liberty's eye and smirking. It seemed that he wasn't having too much difficulty guessing what (or who) had put Rose in this mood.

"Fine," Rose answered stiffly.

"You sure about that?" Alice said innocently, keen to join in the fun. "I always found Potions rather... _frustrating_, myself."

"Rose got proved wrong by Scorpius Malfoy today," Liberty blurted out, apparently too eager to share the news to carry on winding up Rose.

"I did not!" Rose protested, too indignant to care about her resolve to keep her cool. "There was no proof!"

"Maybe not, but Calderwood clearly agrees with him," Liberty argued as Danny and Alice laughed.

"Then Calderwood's jumping to the wrong conclusion too. All she had to say was that I should _open my mind_," Rose scoffed.

"Maybe you should," Danny suggested, still looking like he was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.

Rose looked over at the Ravenclaw table to check that Lorcan and Lysander were out of earshot. "That's the sort of thing Luna Scamander tells my mother when she's trying to prove that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exist. I can't fathom how Malfoy can read one newspaper article and believe that there's a miracle cure for spattergroit. It's complete bullshit, and he should know better; he's supposedly intelligent."

"I think you're in love, Rose," Roxanne called cheekily from a couple of places down, and for the second time that afternoon, Rose felt her ears going red. She hadn't realised that so many people could hear their conversation.

"Shut up, Roxie, I am not. Scorpius Malfoy is arrogant, annoying, so bloody full of himself, and... a smarmy git!" Rose exploded, using one of her dad's insults of choice for his work colleagues at the end when she couldn't think of any adjectives of her own.

All of her friends collapsed into giggles. "That's what I thought about Marco in sixth year, and now look at us," Roxanne said, pulling her boyfriend in for a sloppy kiss. Rose fought the urge to gag. Roxanne and Marco were a truly revolting couple, and Rose dearly hoped that she'd never be like that with anyone, let alone Scorpius.

"Yeah, well, thanks for the inspiration," Rose told her cousin, "but I think I'll pass."

"I don't think you will, though," Roxanne said thoughtfully, and Danny, Alice and Liberty all nodded their agreement.

"I will."

"Tell you what, then," Roxanne suggested, "how about a bet? I bet you a Galleon that you'll kiss Scorpius before the start of the summer."

Rose considered. There were only a few months left until the end of the school year, and whenever she saw Scorpius, the only thing she felt was irrational anger. She couldn't see that changing anytime soon. "Fine. In fact, I'll raise the stakes. Two Galleons."

"You're on."

* * *

That night, Rose decided that she'd rather do her homework in the peace of the library instead of staying in the common room and putting up with her friends' talk about the bet. It was really starting to get annoying. She'd told them she didn't like Scorpius; why couldn't they just leave it at that?

Sighing, she tried to focus on her essay, but she ended up staring blankly at her page. She hadn't been paying attention in Defence Against the Dark Arts that afternoon; she didn't know enough about the Imperius Curse to write a whole essay on it.

"Struggling, Rose?"

The voice behind Rose made her jump and she span around, startled to see the person she least wanted to be standing behind her: Scorpius Malfoy.

"No," she said, hastily starting to flick through her textbook as she blushed yet again. "Just... looking something up. What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

Scorpius looked amused. "Surely we should be on first name terms by now. We've spoken enough in class." Rose scowled, and he continued. "I've just been thinking about the discussion we had earlier, in fact."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I think you might be right."

Rose was stunned. She'd always assumed that Scorpius was as stubborn as she was - even if she had realised that Scorpius was right, she would never, ever, go up to him and tell him so. "Do you?"

"I do. Well, in one respect," Scorpius amended. He looked guilty for a second. "Sorry, I'm distracting you from your homework."

"No, I'm intrigued."

"Well, I think I was being extremely naive about the Salamander blood," Scorpius admitted. "There's no way it could completely cure spattergroit. It would help with the fatigue, sure, but what about the other symptoms: the pustules, the fungus, the inability to speak?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Rose demanded, rolling her eyes.

"You're not, obviously. Nobody does. That's why there's no cure, silly," Scorpius said, and Rose's irrational anger was back. "Except that crazy medieval one. Something to do with standing in a barrel of eels' eyes at the full moon?"

"And practically being strangled by a toad's liver," Rose muttered. "But it obviously isn't a real cure."

"But I think you're wrong to say that it's impossible to find one."

"Whatever. Why are you talking to me, anyway?" Rose asked suspiciously. "You never have before."

"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."

The words that came out of his mouth were unexpected, and Rose was puzzled; was Scorpius Malfoy _flirting_ with her? And if he was, was he doing it seriously? Her mouth went dry in the panic to try and say something appropriate back. "You mean I'm... irresistible, all of a sudden?"

"So it would seem, yes," Scorpius replied smoothly. He cleared his throat. "And so is the idea of being one of the two seventeen-year-old wizards to discover the cure for spattergroit."

Rose almost choked. _"What?"_

"Well," Scorpius said quickly, "I'm getting overexcited. It'll take longer than a year - we'll have to carry on once we've left school, of course - but there's no harm in starting our research now. We can target each individual symptom, find the ingredient that cures it, and make a potion. Nobody's ever managed it before, and we probably won't either, but I think we're the best people for the job. We always disagree; we complement each other. We can challenge the other's view, and we can make it work."

While Scorpius babbled, Rose daydreamed. Her ambition throughout Hogwarts had swapped between becoming a Healer and becoming a Potions researcher; this sounded like the perfect combination of the two. Maybe it was possible to cure spattergroit. It was doubtful that they'd be the ones to find the cure, of course, but why not try? And they might be able to at least find a way of relieving the symptoms. First, though, she'd have to admit that she might be wrong...

"We'll be rich," Scorpius said enticingly, and Rose cracked.

"Okay. Fine. I still don't think it'll work, but I suppose there's no harm in trying," she agreed. "Maybe we'll even learn something."

"Maybe we will," Scorpius echoed, his face still collected, but Rose could tell that he was happier than he was letting on. "We start tomorrow."

He left the library before Rose could say another word, and it was only then that she remembered the bet. Thinking of the confused and fluttery feeling she'd got when she thought that Scorpius was flirting with her, maybe embarking on such a big project with him wasn't the best idea.

* * *

Either Scorpius' arrogance was a front, or Rose had completely misjudged him. The more she got to know him, the more she got to see of his sweet nature, whether they were talking in the library, searching the Potions store cupboards for ingredients to test, or even taking moonlit walks in the Forbidden Forest to search for things growing there.

"This isn't the way!" Rose argued, not for the first time that night, as they attempted to make their way out of the forest. "We were definitely meant to go right at that last bit."

"No we weren't," Scorpius told her wearily. "Look, there's that bush you pointed out. The one you said looks like a troll?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry."

Scorpius just laughed. "Why do you have to dispute _everything_ I say?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I've always been like this. Blame my parents."

"Why, do they argue a lot?"

"All. The. Time," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "It's a miracle they didn't get divorced years ago. But they're still together. I can't understand it."

"Well, maybe arguing is just something they have to do," Scorpius suggested. "Do you think they still love each other?"

"Definitely. Sometimes, the way they look at each other... sometimes I feel like I'm intruding just by being in the same room as them." Rose suddenly realised how intently Scorpius was watching her and felt self-conscious, despite the fact that she was watching him just as carefully. She cleared her throat. "So, what about your parents?"

Scorpius looked down at the floor, emitting a dark chuckle. "They don't argue. And I'm certain they're not in love. My mother puts up a good public front, but underneath it all she's a heartless bitch. I'm not sure how much my father agrees with how judgemental she is, but he never says anything. I don't know exactly what happened to him in the war, but it must have been bad. He's always so... withdrawn."

"I'm sorry," Rose said awkwardly. She wasn't sure what she was meant to say. While she regularly complained about her parents' arguments, she'd never had any real problems at home to contend with. "I shouldn't have asked."

"Nah, I guess you have a right to know that my mother would possibly disown me if she knew that I was friends with a _blood traitor_." He almost spat the term. "If you want out, go ahead."

It was the first time Rose had seen Scorpius really bitter about something. It was also the first time that either of them had actually used the word "friends" to describe their relationship, and she wondered if he had noticed this. Possibly not, because now Rose thought about it, she and Scorpius had been friends for a while now. She'd been thinking of him as a colleague, she supposed, but there must have been a point when it went beyond that.

"Why would that make me not want to be friends with you?"

Scorpius looked confused. "Well, I come from a family of people who irrationally hate you."

"Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't think my dad would be too happy to know that I'm friends with you either, although he'd probably get over it," Rose admitted. "I like being your friend, Scorpius. I don't care what other people think."

"Me too," Scorpius told her, grinning. "Thanks. I needed to hear that."

Then came the awkward moment when neither of them could decide whether they should hug or not. Rose remembered the bet, and decided not, because hugs could lead to other things that could be very expensive in both money and pride.

* * *

Luckily, Rose entered the seventh year dorm to find Roxanne in there alone.

"Roxie?" Rose called tentatively.

"Oh, hey Rose. I was just going out for a walk with Marco, actually - can it wait?" Roxanne asked as she pulled her coat on.

"Don't worry; this won't take long," Rose promised. "I just came to give you this." She walked towards Roxanne, withdrew two Galleons from her pocket, and placed them in her cousin's hand.

Roxanne looked confused. "What's this for?"

"The bet," Rose reminded her. "That's the money I bet you. You've won."

"No way!" Roxanne squealed, looking gleeful. "You mean you lasted for all this time and caved two weeks before the end of term?! What was it like? Was he a good kisser?"

"Well, I haven't actually kissed him yet," Rose admitted, and Roxanne looked flabbergasted.

"Am I understanding this right?" she demanded. "You can't manage to restrain yourself for _two more weeks_? You can't stand it when you don't win things."

"I know, but... he's worth it," Rose said, going a little pink from embarrassment.

Roxanne grinned. "You must really like him."

"Yeah."

"More than you liked Brendan?"

"Much more than I liked Brendan."

"So why haven't you kissed him yet, then?" Roxanne asked incredulously.

"Scared, I guess," Rose shrugged.

"Scared? I thought you were fearless, Rose Weasley."

Rose laughed. "Not quite." In all honesty, she wasn't entirely sure why she hadn't kissed him yet. Maybe because she hadn't done the whole relationship thing in a while - Brendan had been back in fourth year, and that seemed like a long time ago. Maybe because remembering the bet held back the natural progression of things. Maybe because a small part of her still didn't want to give in.

"Are you worried about your dad kicking off?" Roxanne asked. Oh. That was one of the few things Rose hadn't thought about.

"Not really," she said truthfully. "I'm quite sure he _will_ kick off, but Mum will make him see sense if he doesn't manage it by himself. He may be an idiot, but he'll get over it eventually."

"And Scorpius' parents?"

"Well they seem like pieces of work, to be honest," Rose admitted, "but like I said: he's worth it."

"So what's stopping you?" Roxanne demanded, rolling her eyes.

Rose shrugged. "Just the usual - wondering if he likes me as much as I like him... that sort of thing."

"Well, believe me, which I'm sure you won't, when I say that there's no need to worry about that," Roxanne promised, grinning. "I see the way he looks at you. That's not a guy who's in love with someone else. And if you don't try and find out, you'll never know. Men never do anything for themselves these days."

"Thanks." Rose grinned back, although not entirely reassured. "I'll leave you to get ready," she said, turning towards the door, but Roxanne stopped her.

"Rose?"

"Mm?"

Roxanne walked up to Rose and pressed the money back into her palm.

"But Roxie - "

"Keep it. I was rooting for you all along."


End file.
